For forensic psychologist Dr Jeffrey Smalldon, his mission to understand the minds of the world’s most notorious killers has its roots in horrific personal tragedy. While US-based Smalldon was working as a hospital administrator, two of his colleagues – Joyce McFadden and Patty Matix – were found brutally murdered in their research lab, with Patty having been stabbed over 25 times. After consoling Patty’s husband at her funeral, who later became the prime suspect, he became fascinated by how a predator could shift and hide in plain sight.
“I was a naive, green graduate student,” Smalldon recalls of his early attempts to understand what he calls the “black box” of the criminal mind. “I thought … I wonder if there’s a way for a more direct avenue of access into the brains of people who kill.”
After earning his PhD in psychology, Smalldon’s career became entwined with some of the darkest examples of this kind of brain. In this week’s episode of Gary Jubelin’s I Catch Killers podcast, he shares some of his most memorable interactions.
John Wayne Gacy
One such brain resided inside the skull of John Wayne Gacy, the infamous ‘clown-face killer’ convicted of murdering 33 men and boys. Smalldon spent years corresponding with the killer, around the time when he was the same age as many of Gacy’s victims. When the two men came face-to-face, Smalldon reveals the moment he discovered just how Gacy’s strategy worked disarming victims.
“He said, ‘I know, I know you’ve come looking for the monster. Well, you’re going to meet the man,’” the psychologist recalls.
“I could just see him working … and realise how skilfully he disarmed his victims. For one thing, he just wouldn’t stop talking and he just controlled the conversation that way.”
Gacy once sent Smalldon an ‘IQ test’ consisting of visual riddles.
“One of these was … a horizontal line and then like six footprints under it. And the correct answer was ‘six feet under’ … I said, ‘I enjoyed working on your [test], John, but I have to tell you that six feet under made me a little uncomfortable given the facts of your case.’ And he responded with absolute outrage.”
Ted Bundy
Another correspondence, though less frequent than his contact with Gacy, was one he shared with infamous murderer Ted Bundy, who confessed to 30 homicides committed between 1974 and 1978 (though the true number of his victims is unknown and suspected to be much higher).
“My long-term goal was to engage him, develop some kind of rapport with him, and maybe get him to talk about the kind of person who could have killed my co-workers,” says Smalldon.
That was my long range strategy, but it never came to be.
“Then a year later, I get this envelope in my mailbox with the return address of Ted Bundy and inside was a greeting card, one of those stock greeting cards that chaplains distribute in prison.
“The letter starts out … ‘Dear Jeff, I just came upon you there amongst my papers.’ And I remember thinking, I was pretty young, but who talks that way? Who talks about finding a letter amongst their papers? I thought he sounded like a snooty professor, and then he goes on to say, ‘I apologise that it’s taken me such an inordinately long time to respond to your letter. As for your questions, I found them very searching and thoughtful. I want you to know that he’s serving two death sentences at this point. I’ve never felt better in my life. Mentally, spiritually, or physically, I hope the same can be said for you.’
“Then, this is the guy, the mobile killer who travels hundreds of miles in search of victims, he knows I know that, and he signed off the letter, ‘take care, watch yourself, travel light. Peace’.
“It’s the classic serial killer’s tease, they just love the game. He knew I would get it, that I would get that he was kind of playing, and he thought he was very clever.”
Charles Manson
Cult leader and murderer Charles Manson, who alongside his ‘Family’ followers committed seven murders across LA in the late sixties, was one of the first of Smalldon’s ‘deep-dive’ psychological fascinations.
Writing letters back and forth with both Manson and his followers, he was shocked at how strong Manson’s hold over his disciples still was.
“He had all kinds of control over them,” says Smalldon.
“I mean, I knew the whole time I was corresponding with them that Mason was monitoring our correspondents, telling them what to tell me. He was involved in the whole thing. And they still were totally in his thrall. They were still devoted followers of him.”
Some of the most devoted members of the ‘family’ – including Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Sandy Good, and Susan Atkins – provided surreal interactions. Susan Atkins, often described as the most maniacal member, sent Smalldon photos of herself from jail and claimed she was having dreams about him.
“I get a letter one day from Squeaky’s roommate, Sandy,” he recounts.
“In this letter it says, ‘Manson says … tell them that if they don’t do what you tell them to do, a wave of assassins will soon sweep through their homes and splash blood from room to room.’ … I’m thinking, ‘OK, I now I really need a way [out].’”
Less than three months after Smalldon received those threatening letters, Squeaky Fromme attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.
